Measurement of the vortex mass in a superconducting film

Abstract

We have combined high resolution magneto-optical imaging with an ultra-fast heating/cooling technique to measure the movement of individual vortices in a superconducting film. The motion took place while the film was heated close to $T_c$, where pinning and viscous forces are relatively small. Under these conditions, vortices move due to the magnetic repulsion between them. We found that a finite vortex mass has to be included in the analysis in order to account for the experimental results. The extent of the motion is consistent with a vortex mass being 3 orders of magnitude smaller than the mass of all the electrons in the core.